Giuliani Advisor Doesn’t Like Giuliani Quote

Over the weekend, Rudy Giuliani sought to reinforce his credentials with conservative voters by citing laudatory comments about him from conservative pundit George Will.

“If you look at the record of my results and the opposition that I had to overcome to achieve those results, you’ll understand why George Will called my time as mayor of New York City, quote, ‘The most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years’,” he said at a values voter conference in Washington.

Mr. Giuliani often cites Will’s commentary, and the quote incessantly appears in the campaign’s releases. But at least one of Giuliani’s advisors wishes he’d stop doing it.

"It’s like people quoting good parts of a bad review to advertise their books or movies," said Norman Podhoretz, a senior member of Giuliani’s foreign policy team, in a recent interview. "In fact I will now probably tell them that I don’t think it is a good idea."

He said that Will had endangered his conservative credentials by doing an about-face on the war in Iraq.

"George has actually said that John Kerry has been retrospectively vindicated,” Mr. Podhoretz said. “He has gone all the way in the other direction. He thinks neo-conservatism is a ‘spectacularly misnamed radicalism’- well I think he’s wrong."